[POLL] Calgary Flames coaching change mega-thread—with poll

[Fuzz]

Let's be clear here, we were a bubble team all year, not a playoff team. One look at the snake will tell you that.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Jesus Christ is he ever delusional.

The fact that he seems to think the only real problem was one bad month really only underscores why he lost his job.

He can make excuses and blame injuries all he wants. This team's stars were healthy the first five months and he did nothing with it. "We were going to the playoffs"? We were on the outside looking in for most of the season, and it took a combined seven game winning streak and Kings' six game losing streak just to briefly pull in. Only for the patented Glen Gulutzan Late Season Swoon to kick in.

Sounds to me he thinks that owners or Burke may have had a hand in his firing;

“I was a bit surprised (by the decision), but I have a real good connection with Tre so I obviously knew there were some unhappy people,”

I still think he's a good guy but not a fan of the comments.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Bob McKenzie@TSNBobMcKenzie
Interesting game of cat and mouse going on in CAR with head coach Bill Peters and owner Tom Dundon. Peters, for now, has option to leave CAR. Sense is Peters’ strong preference is to NOT return. He is a candidate in CGY/DAL and belief is the Albertan’s preference is to go home.

Bob McKenzie@TSNBobMcKenzie
But if Peters doesn’t use option to leave, if timing and/or prospects of CGY/DAL job don’t materialize during window, Peters may not be eager to walk away from CAR with $ (one year) still on table. May prefer to be fired, but Dundon doesn’t like firing, prefers reassigning.

Man this whole Peters thing is so weird. Not sure it puts him in a good light as far as being a top candidate. Just quit if you don't want to be there as the posturing in hopes you get fired doesn't play out well out in the open. It's not like he's Mike Babcock, AV or other guys with a track record.

[Red]

Once again he doesn't take any responsibility.
Not surprised. This guy is full of excuses, for himself and his under performing team.
Good riddance.

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Let’s be honest, they were a playoff team in 2017, but they didn’t win a game. Does anyone really think had they made the playoffs this year that they were beating Vegas or Nashville?

No, especially with Monahan’s basket of injuries.

[Table 5]

This was a mediocre, lily-livered, team all season long...the last couple of months just emphasized how much. But this team had major issues that went way beyond injuries.

Even if we somehow tripped backwards into the playoffs, can anyone imagine this Gulutzan-led team elevating their play to the standards needed for the post-season?

[ResAlien]

Did some of you expect Glen to come out and say “You know what? I suck balls. I look for balls, I retrieve the balls, and then I suck em. I am the worst. Thank God that BT has the good sense to finally fire me. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go prepare as I’ll be committing seppuku live on the next Coach’s Corner.”

I don’t see much issue with what he said. It’s the coach equivalent of a player intermission interview, so long man.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Let’s be honest, they were a playoff team in 2017, but they didn’t win a game. Does anyone really think had they made the playoffs this year that they were beating Vegas or Nashville?

This. Getting into the playoffs in 2017 was definitely acceptable but fact is they were swept out and too many people believe that is 100% on the goalie. It wasn't. I get the feeling that GG may not have looked hard enough at those 4 games to see where improvement was needed, as 5 on 5 they weren't great in that series.

Fast forward to this year, and at their best and when 100% healthy, the team was a playoff bubble team. When not healthy, or playing poorly, you're looking at one of the worst teams in the league.

The record speaks for itself, Zero playoff wins in 2 years, and a significant decline in points from one year to the next.

All the best to GG. I hope he finds something to learn in all of this.

[Galakanokis]

Originally Posted by kyuss275

He wasn't wrong. I know CP has wanted him out for a while but I can almost guarantee you that if flames had sneaked into playoffs he wouldn't have been fired. The collapse after deadline is equal coaching and players fault.

Perhaps. But I would say that if the Flames were one and done in the playoffs he would have been on a very short leash going into next year. If the Flames came out next year like they did this year and were still just a bubble team he would be let go before Christmas.

Gulutzan's overall body of work got him fired not a tire fire month or two.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Did some of you expect Glen to come out and say “You know what? I suck balls. I look for balls, I retrieve the balls, and then I suck em. I am the worst. Thank God that BT has the good sense to finally fire me. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go prepare as I’ll be committing seppuku live on the next Coach’s Corner.”

I don’t see much issue with what he said. It’s the coach equivalent of a player intermission interview, so long man.

Most guys just come out and say they "didn't get the job done" or "things didn't work out". I see excuses and some finger pointing that it wasn't the GM's decision which optically doesn't look good. It's one thing to make excuses when you have a long track record of success and were fired for maybe one bad season but to make excuses when you never met or exceeded expectations doesn't come off well. These guys know they are hired to be fired and you have to take accountability when things don't work out.

[Red]

. nm

[The Fonz]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Did some of you expect Glen to come out and say “You know what? I suck balls. I look for balls, I retrieve the balls, and then I suck em. I am the worst. Thank God that BT has the good sense to finally fire me. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go prepare as I’ll be committing seppuku live on the next Coach’s Corner.”

I don’t see much issue with what he said. It’s the coach equivalent of a player intermission interview, so long man.

I expected him to take responsibility.

"I wasn't good enough. Our team under-performed."

[Red]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Did some of you expect Glen to come out and say “You know what? I suck balls. I look for balls, I retrieve the balls, and then I suck em. I am the worst. Thank God that BT has the good sense to finally fire me. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go prepare as I’ll be committing seppuku live on the next Coach’s Corner.”

I don’t see much issue with what he said. It’s the coach equivalent of a player intermission interview, so long man.

He is blaming a losing streak caused by injuries and possibly "outside opinions" for his firing.

Should have said "Ultimately we didnt get the job done" when coaching is most important (injuries and important games).

He always passed the buck after losses. His comments are not surprising to me.

[Resolute 14]

If Gulutzan wants to blame "one bad month" for his demise, he should look at October rather than March.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

The team got swept last year, but played better against the Ducks than two years before, IMO.

They also had Giordano/Hamilton/Stone/Tkachuk/Frolik instead of Russell/Wideman/Engelland/Hudler/Colborne while the Ducks had Theodore/Carlyle instead of Fowler/Boudreau. I really don't buy Hartley getting swept considering many of the game-deciding in-game coaching blunders made.

If they'd made the POs they would have been playing better than the last month which, IMO is skewing some people's memories of the whole year.

My memory of the whole year starts with Game 1 when Matt Bartkowski started instead of the clearly-better Brett Kulak and played for the next seven games. Which just happened to coincide with Bennett being attached to the hip to guys like Brouwer (despite last year's debacle), Lazar (despite Lazar's total inability to play offence), and Versteeg (despite Versteeg's flat-out poor play) and that disaster of a Bart-Stone pairing.

My memory of the whole year continues onto Jagr's arrival where he was finally placed with Bennett and that line seemed to be developing some chemistry and generating actual dangerous offense only to be taken off to give a jolt to the top line, who were producing anyways.

My memory continues onto how the Flames lost their realistic chance at the playoffs when they went 5-6-2 in December despite Bennett actually producing - 4G 6A from the third line. When you have a third liner playig at that level usually you go on a hot streak, not a cold streak.

My memory of the whole year includes TJ Brodie being attached to Travis Hamonic despite the pairing having cascading offensive weakness caused by Brodie's preference for passing and Hamonic's inability to do anything from the point (Unlike Stone, Hamilton, Giordano, Russell - all partners Brodie has actually succeeded with).

My memory of the whole year includes Jankowski and Bennett being forced to play with Garnet Hathaway, a player with whom they did not fit outside of an obviously flukey start, and no adjustments being made.

My memory of the whole year includes 3M struggles for most of the year, without a single attempt to see if maybe that line had run its course and perhaps some shuffling could help the team.

My memory of the whole year includes a failure to, at any point, put Gaudreau on the side of the power play that would enable quick decision making.

To me Guluzan's failures were clear as early as November 2016 and the next sixteen months were playing out the string as he didn't change anything. The Ducks shut us down in the playoffs and his solution was to stick with it, even though we have an absolutely potent core of defensemen who have all proven they have more offense to give than that which they could in this system, which favoured the one defenseman on the team with a cookie cutter shots-on-goal-don't-think skillset. Giordano was a 55-60 point beast before Gulutzan, Brodie was a 42-50 point beast before Gulutzan, Hamonic was a 25 point option, and each of these guys were an afterthought in a system designed to maximize the Garnet Hathaway dump n cycle game.

It's true, maybe this team could have made the playoffs under Gulutzan. But that would have been despite him, as they have a mostly strong roster.

I sure hope whomever we hire next is in the business of getting the most out of this roster. Gulutxan was not.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Did some of you expect Glen to come out and say “You know what? I suck balls. I look for balls, I retrieve the balls, and then I suck em. I am the worst. Thank God that BT has the good sense to finally fire me. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go prepare as I’ll be committing seppuku live on the next Coach’s Corner.”

I don’t see much issue with what he said. It’s the coach equivalent of a player intermission interview, so long man.

Thanks for the sig.

[Monahan For Mayor]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Bob McKenzie@TSNBobMcKenzie
Interesting game of cat and mouse going on in CAR with head coach Bill Peters and owner Tom Dundon. Peters, for now, has option to leave CAR. Sense is Peters’ strong preference is to NOT return. He is a candidate in CGY/DAL and belief is the Albertan’s preference is to go home.

Bob McKenzie@TSNBobMcKenzie
But if Peters doesn’t use option to leave, if timing and/or prospects of CGY/DAL job don’t materialize during window, Peters may not be eager to walk away from CAR with $ (one year) still on table. May prefer to be fired, but Dundon doesn’t like firing, prefers reassigning.

I wonder if both Calgary and Dallaa are courting AV, and loser takes home Peters.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Table 5

This was a mediocre, lily-livered, team all season long...the last couple of months just emphasized how much. But this team had major issues that went way beyond injuries.

Even if we somehow tripped backwards into the playoffs, can anyone imagine this Gulutzan-led team elevating their play to the standards needed for the post-season?

"It took 168 games but we just werent ready."

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Thanks for the sig.

Bahaha! Dammit. I was hoping to update mine, but I'll let you have it.

[Bingo]

In all fairness he did say that he himself had trouble managing expectations, there's some culpability in that.

As far as the "trust your GM" issue being discussed, to me it comes down to the man.

Had complete faith in Fletcher.
Risebrough was a mess.
Coates wasn't a GM
I liked Button
Sutter was two men (the guy that couldn't lose, then the guy that panicked)
Feaster was terrifying
Treliving I have confidence in.

That's the start of where I go with these things. If I trust the guy I assume he knows what he's doing.

But they all make mistakes.